distortion on burned cdr

> > > distortion on burned cdr

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Member Since: Oct 21, 2004

I'm new to burning and not sure what I'm doing. While burning an audio cdr from a master cd using Nero5, I used normalize RMS 20%(Nero default) to get the volume of the tracks consistent and maximized. What I ended up with was distortion on the upper frequencies. Is there a better normalize setting I could have used? Besides RMS(5-50%) the other option is Maximum(80-100%). Or maybe I should use another speed. I used 40X read and 6X write.

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Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Aug 20, 2006 01:43 pm

If you are copying a disc you will sometimes encouter a form of distortion that is there for copy protection. Its not a very common practice any more, but was at one time. If the CD being copied was allready maximized as well by doing it again you are adding some gain and that will cause distortion as well. But leaving the default setting is usually the best bet to get a good burn. I as well as many others will always burn audio at the slowest possible setting you have. Copy speed is questionable as well. Some say it makes no differance, but I have never used high speed to copy anything but data, never audio.

Member
Since: Oct 21, 2004

Aug 20, 2006 03:53 pm

The master cd I was copying was actually an audio cdrw of my own music that I made myself with a cd audio recorder. It was not maximized and while the loudest parts of each track are right at the max, a lot of the levels are well below that and I thought it all needed to be generally louder. Plus there was one track that was a little too loud in relation to the others. The overall sound quality on the master is very good and distortion free. The distortion of the copy is unacceptable. Do you think I should have used a slower read speed? If so, what? I made a mistake in saying I wrote at 6X. It was actually 4X and this is as slow as I can go with my Nero. Previously I had been copying my cd's with my audio recorder but I just got this computer with a burner and was hoping it would speed up the process and give me a more professional, maximized product. Maybe I should just ditch the normalization all together. If that doesn't work I guess I'm going to have to go back to my recorder.

I am not a crook's head
Member
Since: Mar 14, 2003

Aug 20, 2006 09:15 pm

Those are all things that you should probably fix in the mastering stage before burning to Cd.

I'd suggest ripping all the audio to WAV on your computer, loading them each into an app that's capable of doing some mastering (Audacity is a free one if you don't have one), and get the levels set before burning them back to CD.

I wouldn't rely on doing this at the burning stage since you can do it so much better yourself with just a little time and some free software.

Member
Since: Oct 21, 2004

Aug 21, 2006 03:13 am

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense.

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004

Aug 21, 2006 10:26 am

also, if you're trying to increase volume, then the already maxed out parts will distort. Kind of common sense there, some parts are already as loud as they can go without clipping.

I'd think that Tad's idea of re-mastering them again, in something like audacity, would be the way to go. Maybe put a compressor on the track, then a master limiter on the master channel, so the highest parts don't get any louder, just the lower parts.

my .02$us, of course, ymmv

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Aug 21, 2006 05:07 pm

Yep, Tad has it right on. Your best bet is to try and level it in a dedicated application on the PC first. Nero isnt really a good place to try and get an even sound, altough it works it wont do as good a job as a dedicated 2 track editer.

Member
Since: Sep 21, 2006

Sep 21, 2006 10:36 pm

on the same subject I have recorded into my pc some of my own trks and mixed to 2 trk mixdown then burn to cd. As well as lp's and downloaded music to the pc then burn to disc.Use Nero 6 for that stuff.
I encounter almost always distortion. this occurs at various peaks and sometimes just random. It is very annoying and tried different media, slo burn rates, record vol. set low, on and on etc,etc
it's still present.
Any ideas?

> > > distortion on burned cdr

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